Simply Italian: Dinner at Borgo Trattoria

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     Borgo Trattoria, calgary, Capo, eating out, italian, Restaurants

It seems like we’ve been getting a lot of new restaurants popping up in Calgary this past little while, and that is a good thing! Similar to my excitement for Ox And Angela, the massive sign for Borgo Trattoria caught my eye repeatedly for weeks prior to it’s opening in early September.

My friends and I popped into Borgo on a very busy Friday night. The interior of the space is amazing. Really fantastic light fixtures (On a side note, I’m so sick of those ‘vintage’ light bulbs lounges/restaurants are overusing these days…(*cough* Local 510/522 *cough*), great bench seating in the back half of the restaurant by their open kitchen, with a central bar area.

Borgo has quite extensive hours of operation. They are open from 8 a.m. until ‘whenever the chef is done’ which, the few times I’ve eaten here, has been around 11 p.m.

They start the day off as an espresso bar, serving the standard drinks (illy espresso of course, pictured), as well as home-made pastries. Turning into a lunch spot at 11:30 a.m., afternoon snack spot from 3-5, and a full-service dinner destination from 5 p.m. on. Wow, that was a lot to say…

The menu here has a lot of options. Small bites, Pastas (both half and full orders are offered), as well as different cuts of meats. Since there was four if us, we decided to order every item from the evening’s Cicheti (small bites) section. Some items were available by the piece, while others were a set price per plate. The Cicheti offerings change frequently, so you might not be able to enjoy the exact same dishes we did on this particular night.

Here were some of the highlights from the small plates that we ordered…

The veal and pork meatballs (ordered by the piece) were nice and tender. There was a very simple marinara sauce on top and just a sprinkling on parmesan cheese.

On this board, sat some crispy little crostini, proscuitto, and a melt-in-your-mouth mozzarella. Topped with some micro-basil as a finishing touch. Classic pairing here, I love a mild mozzarella, this did not disappoint.

We were all fighting over the last few bites of this mushroom dish. Sauteed wild mushrooms in a rich sauce, topped with parsley and some bread on the side to soak up all of the sauce. Which we did.

Saving the best for last, these beauties would be Borgo’s eggplant ‘fritta’ with a little pail (cute, hey?) of fennel yogurt dip. Eggplant can get mushy easily, so it was fantastic to enjoy the vegetable in crispy ‘french fry’ shape. I will always order this dish every time I’m in the restaurant. Even an eggplant hater would succumb to the tastiness of this dish. No joke!

After digesting the entire small bites menu, we were still a tad hungry, so decided to order some gnocchi to share, as well as some swordfish (fish option changes daily), followed by their dessert platter which featured four Italian desserts including a chocolate-dipped cannoli and a heavenly sweet panna cotta.

As far as drinks go here, Borgo offers a solid selection of wines and cocktails, but what I found most interesting is that the restaurant has three Italian beers that are imported directly from Italy (like the Birra Moretti, pictured) and are exclusive to the restaurant, well, in Calgary anyway.

Lastly, I just want to mention that the price point of the menu here is absolutely amazing. The most expensive dish we ordered was the gnocchi, which was only $16. Small bites ranged from $2-$8. If the IKEA ‘Start the car!’ commercial pops into your head when you get the bill, that’s ok…it happened to me too!

Acorn Squash And Pink Peppercorn Vinaigrette

Dan    Appetizers & Co., Recipes, Vegan     acorn squash, autumn, recipes, salad, squash, vegan, vegetarian

What you’ll need…

Dressing:

1/2 acorn squash (gutted, reserve seeds)

3 cloves garlic

2 TSP pink peppercorns

1 orange (zest and juice)

1/2 cup of orange juice

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 cups olive oil

salt and pepper

Salad:

Whatever you’d like, really, but here’s what I used…

remaining 1/2 acorn squash (chopped 1″ pieces, skin on)

1 package spring mix

2 tomatoes (sliced)

1/2 red onion (thinly sliced)

1 small zucchini (halved, 1/2″ sliced, approximately 1 1/2 )

remaining 1/2 acorn squash (chopped 1″ pieces)

1 cup garlic and fine herb boursin cheese (gently crumbled)

There are so many things to do with some many different types of squash and very enough time. True. Story. Since I think most of us are knee deep in squash soups right now, figuratively of course (what an odd sensation that would be if literal), I thought it might be need to try throwing a squash into a salad dressing. Blending the roasted squash in with the usual suspects of vinaigrette ingredients, with some sweetness of the maple and orange, resulted in an interesting autumn-appropriate salad. I tested out this concoction just this past week at my Thanksgiving dinner and although I was too busy drinking wine and socializing, I’m going to just assume that everyone enjoyed it!

As mentioned above, save the squash seeds, then roast them until crispy. Toss with some salt and pepper and sprinkle on top of or salad. Or, do what I did, and just eat all of the seeds by the handful and do not share with anyone.

Roasting a squash of any type is ridiculously simple. Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Place the half squash on a prepared baking sheet, brush with some olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and let roast, flesh side up, for about 35-40 minutes, or until fork tender. Remove from heat and let cool.

Once cool, spoon out flesh into a blender, followed by the next six dressing ingredients. Puree until smooth. Next, while pulsing, gradually pour in the olive oil. Once everything is combined, have a quick taste, and season with some salt and pepper if needed. Store in an air-tight container and refrigerate. Can be stored for up to one week.

**Note: I did notice that after a few days, the maple flavour of the vinaigrette became more and more prominent. If you’re making this in advance, add a bit more oil and vinegar to avoid this. Unless you really like maple, then just sit with it!

When you’re ready to serve, combine the salad ingredients in a large serving bowl. Sprinkle the crumbled boursin cheese (and squash seeds if you didn’t eat them all!) on top, finish with some freshly ground black pepper and you’re good to go!

Yields 4 cups salad dressing

Total cook time…55 minutes (including roasting)

Thanksgiving with the Monday Night Supper Club

Dan    Monday Night Supper Club     #yycMNSC, pumpkin, supper club, thanksgiving

Guest post by Chelsea Klukas, @chelscore

Last week the Monday Night Supper Club hosted a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays: there’s no stress of gift giving, no time-consuming costume preparation, and no religious or somber overtones. It’s the time to celebrate a good harvest (admittedly I’ve never seen Co-op have a bad harvest), good food, and to be thankful for our friends and family.

Dan hosted nearly 20 people in his home, miraculously managing to give everyone space to prepare food and eat. The dishes included traditional Thanksgiving fare like potatoes, green beans, and cranberry sauce. Guests also experimented with  unconventional dishes including Ashley K’s pumpkin risotto, Lori A’s Mexican soup, and Jacqueline T’s devilled eggs. The main course was a giant turducken prepared by Dan, providing enough meat to feed the entire group with leftovers. A vegetarian alternative of Tofurkey was served with vegan gravy. While not as popular as the Turducken, the tofurkey was surprisingly flavourful and was deemed “not bad” by meat enthusiasts.

The #yycMNSC crew eating and tweeting.

The meal concluded with a number of pies, including pear-berry and pumpkin pie from Jacinthe K. Finding room for dessert after gorging on eight servings of carbs took determination, but the pies were well worth it.

My personal thankful list: great friends, stretchy pants, and a reason to look forward to Mondays.

Pie (left), Caitlin Power (centre), and everyone’s favourite thanksgiving dish (right).

Participants:

Dan C @dansgoodside : Turducken and homemade cranberry sauce
Chelsea K @chelscore: Tofurkey with vegan gravy
Sarah W @frecklesandash: Gluten-free stuffing made with wild rice
Brie B @brie_elise: Onion casserole
Lori A @designertweets: Spicy Mexican chicken soup
Rob M @rjmcleod : Stuffing/dressing
Jacqueline T: @jacquelintetyler: Devilled eggs
Ashley K @petitegourmet: Creamy pumpkin risotto with marscapone cheese
Drew B @dbeatsbeets: Bread
Jacinthe K @jacinthekoddo: A pear berry pie and a pumpkin pie
Jamie P @jamiepenno: Wine
Tym A @tymarmstrong : Roasted rosemary potatoes and yams
Vincci T @VincciT: Sweet potatoes with spiced maple pecans
Caitlin P @caitlin_power : Cheese and crackers

Dan c’s homemade cranberry sauce (left) and Brie B (right).

Balsamic Roasted Red Pepper Risotto and Giveaway

Dan    Appetizers & Co., Recipes     appetizer, recipes, red pepper, risotto, vegetarian

What you’ll need…

2 cups half and half cream

4 cups chicken broth (or veggie to keep vegetarian-friendly)

3 roasted red bell peppers (approx. 1 cup)

1/2 bulb roasted garlic

2 TBSP butter (softened)

1 yellow onion (finely chopped)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 cups arborio rice

salt and pepper

olive oil

fresh parsley (for garnish, optional)

I just finished filming two segments for Food Network Canada’s series ‘Eat St.’ these past couple of days. It was a lot of fun, I got to talk about two of my favourite food trucks (Alley Burger and Perogy Boys), but two days of shooting in cold fall weather, with rain to boot, has officially chilled me to the bone! Damn…fall really is here now…

Well, what better way to warm up then with a creamy risotto? The thing some people don’t like about risotto is all the stirring you have to do, but when you’re looking to shake the chilly, then standing by the stove, spooning (not that kind of spooning) a hot pan for thiry minutes couldn’t really be all that bad, right?

If you’ve ever made risotto before, you’ll know that it comes off a lot more intimidating then it actually is. Hell, we even make risotto in my Start From Scratch class. If those kids can do it, you can do it! Anyway, onto the cooking…Start off by putting the cream and stock into a medium-sized pot, then let come to a simmer on high heat. Once it starts to bubble, reduce to low heat, you just need the broth hot, not boiling. While you’re waiting for that to heat up, puree the roasted bell peppers, roasted garlic and butter using a blender or food processor. We’ll add thisat  the end of the risotto cooking process, so better to have it ready and waiting now!

Now, drizzle some olive oil in a large pan, throw in the chopped onion and garlic and let cook on medium-high heat until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar to the pan and continue to cook until the liquid has reduced byhalf, about 5 more minutes. Now, pour in the arborio rice, stirring until everything is evenly mixed. Let the mixture cook for another couple minutes before you start adding the broth.

This is where all the stirring comes in, you don’t really need to stir with religious conviction for the next 25 minutes, but be attentive and stir regularly. Add-in one ladle of broth at a time, letting the liquid become almost completely absorbed before adding more broth. Continue this process until you’ve used up all of the broth. Finally, stir in the roasted pepper puree and watch your risotto turn a beautiful orange-reddish hue. How autumn, right? Season with a bit of salt and pepper and dish out. Warm up by the mouthful!

Serves 4-5

Total cook time…40 min

As an added bonus today, The Rocky Mountain Wine And Food Festival is taking place this weekend in Calgary. The festival showcases amazing wines, spirits, as well as great food from local restaurants. Since I love to share, I’m giving away two sets of double passes to attend this event this Friday night, October 14th (doors open at 4 p.m.).

To enter to win one of the double passes simply share my recipe on twitter (mentioning myself, @dansgoodside and the festival, @rockywinefood), or leave a comment in the thread below. You have until Thursday night, October 13th, at 11PM to enter the contest. I’ll announce the lucky winners on Friday morning! Good luck!

Click here for full details on this festival.

Food Network Canada’s ‘Eat St.’ Series Stops By Calgary This Week!

Dan    Thoughts     Alley Burger, calgary, Eat St., Food Network Canada, food trucks, Perogy Boyz

Now, I know this isn’t exactly breaking news, I think the cat’s been out of the bag for a few weeks, but, nonetheless, this is definitely something to get excited about. This coming Thursday and Friday (October 6th and 7th, respectively), the Food Network Canada television series ‘Eat St.‘ will be filming in Calgary and it’s time for you to show your love for our city’s food trucks!

They will be spending the latter part of this week shooting segments on two of Calgary’s stand-out trucks: Perogy Boyz (Thursday) and Alley Burger (Friday). On each of the days, I will be heading down to both of the trucks to witness all of the foodie fun and, most importantly, to eat!

I’ll also be doing an on-camera interview about the food trucks for the Calgary episode, which is set to air at some point in season three of ‘Eat St.‘. So, I better get my hair cut…

The Food Network Canada series wants to see a whole bunch of dedicated food truck fans down at the filming locations during the trucks’ lunch services, so I thought it would only be fair that I share the times and locations for the ‘Eat St.‘ excitement happening this week…

Come dine at the Perogy Boyz truck while the ‘Eat St.’ crew is in town…

Thursday, October 6th, from 12 p.m. – 2 p.m., at Central Memorial Park (corner of 12th Ave SW and 3rd St SW)!

Grab some eats from the Alley Burger truck while the ‘Eat St.’ cameras film all the action this Friday!

Friday, October 7th, from 12 p.m. – sold out, at the original Alley Burger location (Back alley of Charcut, corner of 9th Ave and Centre St)!

Click here to RSVP on Facebook!

See you there!

General Life Update…If You’re Interested…

Dan    Thoughts     #yycMNSC, Avenue magazine, blogging, calgary, Canadian Living, Metro News, writing

Alright folks, I don’t do this very often, so just bear with me. As usual, I have been leading a busy, hectic life trying to balance work, writing, social activities and, last, but not least, learning how to do cart-wheels (to no avail). Naturally, with all these different adventures I have on the go, I feel like it’s only fair that I provide a little bit of a life update…

Summer seemed to blow by with amazing swiftness this year, but doesn’t that always seem to be the case? With the end of summer comes my birthday in early September. And, as written about by my friend Gwendolyn, I spent it in a park with friends eating food that was shaped like cakes. You know, the regular things that late twenty somethings do on their birthday. (pictured below, my disastrous attempt at a potato salad moulded into cake form…)

As a present to myself, I decided to abstain from alcohol for one month. During the summer I had been a bit too, um, ‘nonchalant’ with my alcohol consumption. Pub patios and barbecues with friends are all too common during the warm weather and sometimes it’s just too hard to say no to a cold beer on a sunny day. Thus, the 28 day ‘No booze for Dan’ experiment began. I now have only four days remaining in the challenge and feel nothing less than fantastic. This is not to say that I am not looking to having a glass of wine again next week, but it really puts things into perspective. This cleanse also came at a good time as I am attending a wedding in Hawaii in four weeks and need to look good in a bathing suit!

My cooking initiative, Start From Scratch, has just started up again. This year we’re taking thirty university students (fifteen from the University of Calgary and fifteen from Mount Royal University) and helping to inspire them in the kitchen. Since the program has doubled in size this fall, I have found a foodie partner in crime, Jacinthe Koddo, who will be teaching the Thursday night group. With the first week of classes down, it’s looking like the remaining nine weeks are going be a great ride.

I’m fortunate enough to have some great partners with this program including Calgary Co-op, Yelp Canada, Steam Whistle Pilsner, as well as some awesome local food personalities. We’ll be doing a farmers’ market tour with the students in a few weeks with Conne Desousa from Top Chef Canada! Yes, you should be jealous…

In the past month, I’ve been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to start writing regularly for two local publications. The first is Avenue magazine. I’ve started doing a series of pieces where I get to go partake in hands-on foodie ‘adventures’, then write about the experience. How fun is that?

I actually just finished but butchering a lamb yesterday with Chef Rogers at Home Tasting Room, so stay tuned for that recap! I’ve never butchered anything before, except a chicken (kind of?), so it was definitely a learning experience. Good thing the chef was patient with me…

It’s bloody work, but someone’s got to do it!

The second opportunity is a weekly restaurant review column in Metro News Calgary. Each Tuesday, starting on October 18th, you’ll be able to read my short review of a local lunch spot in their ‘Lunch Rush’ column.

The focus of this column is finding great establishments in Calgary to have a tasty, yet affordable lunch. I’m always up for discovering new delicious dishes around the city, so I very much look forward to this challenge. The majority of this challenge will lie in expanding my comfort zone beyond the downtown core, in which I work and live. I just may have to exercise a bit more each week now…but, on a mildly unrelated note, I did recently join a swim club, so maybe that will balance out the extra calories?

If you are a regular to the Food Network Canada site, you’ll notice that they’re making some great changes on there. One of the new features at www.FoodNetwork.ca is the addition of their ‘Food Network Canada Blog Network’. I am excited to say that my website is officially part of the Food Network family now. The network’s primary focus will be recipes, so I’m more than happy to share my creations and be an integral  part of this new extension of the Food Network brand. The new feature to their site is set to launch in a few weeks, so you’ll be able to check it out in full functionality very soon!

Another great new online project I’ve become a part of is Food Bloggers Of Canada. Set up by three dedicated, as well as prolific, food bloggers Mardi, Ethan, and Melissa. This site is meant to be a hub for all Canadian food bloggers. A place where you can share information, find how-to guides, as well as food events happening in your area.

I was humbled when the trio asked me to contribute to their site by means of a series of recipe development posts. I’ll be posting monthly, give or take, touching on everything from basic salad dressings to roasting koala…Ok, maybe not that random. Anyway, you can check out my first piece, 5 fundamentals for recipe development here…

Almost done with the life updates here…This week I got a special holiday issue of Canadian Living in the mail. About six months ago, the magazine had put out an open call for recipes to be featured in this fall issue. I submitted a few of my favourites, and, luckily enough, two made it into the magazine. I was notified of this via email back in July and, from there, eagerly awaited the print copy to land in my mailbox.

Now, I was excited enough that a couple of my own recipes would be this issue, but I was floored when I received the print copy, flipped through it and saw that my Tandoori Carrot And Apple Bisque had a two page colour spread. Actually, I pretty much had a heart attack. I mean, this was kind of like the food version of a Playboy centerfold, right? My recipe for Coconut Curry Chicken Pot Pie made the cut as well, and it actually shares a page with my friend Ethan Adeland’s recipe! Small food blogger world, ain’t it?

(aforementioned recipe feature in Canadian Living!)

I’ve been bad about posting recaps of my Monday Night Supper Club. Life often gets in the way. Rest assured, the supper club is still going strong and it is always a great way to spend a Monday night. With my significant workload as of late, you may see some guest writers from the club doing the recaps. Consider them to be a nice break from my sarcasm…

With all of this going on, I’ve decided to dedicate Sunday to working solely on my writing and website. I think I will also dedicate it to a delicious brunch prior to working the day away. What do you think?

I do have one more exciting project in the works, but can’t mention it quite just yet. I think you’ll love it though! I might drop a hint or two in the next month or so…Until then!

Ok, that’s all.

–Dan